The Jewels of Aptor Part 8

There was a sudden silence.

Then Argo said, "Close the door."

Urson closed it. Snake still held Geo and the jewel.

"Well," she said. "It is too late now."

"What do you mean?" asked Geo.

"That had you not come blundering in, one more of Aptor's spies would have yielded up his secrets and then been reduced to ashes." She breathed deeply. "But he has his jewel now, and I have mine. Well, little thief, there's a stalemate. The forces are balanced now." She looked at Geo. "How do you think he came so easily by the jewel? How do you think he knew when I would be at the sh.o.r.e? Oh, he's a clever one, with all the intelligence of Aptor working behind him. He probably even had you planted without your knowing it to interrupt us at just that time."

"No, he ..." began Urson.

"We were walking by your door," Geo interrupted, "when we heard a noise and thought there might be trouble."

"Your concern may have cost us all our lives."

"If he's a spy, I gather that means he knows how this thing works," said Geo. "Let Urson and I take him ..."

"Take him anywhere you wis.h.!.+" hissed Argo. "Get out!"

Just then the door opened. "I heard a sound, Priestess Argo, and I thought you might be in danger." It was the first mate.

The G.o.ddess Incarnate breathed deeply. "I am in no danger," she said evenly. "Will you please leave me alone, all of you."

"What's the Snake doing here?" Jordde suddenly asked, seeing Geo still holding the boy.

"I said, leave me!"

Geo turned, away from Jordde, and stepped past him onto the deck, and Urson followed him. Ten steps farther on, he glanced back, and seeing that Jordde had emerged from the cabin and was walking in the other direction, he set Snake down on his feet. "All right, Little One.

March!"

In the pa.s.sage to the forecastle, Urson asked, "Hey, what's going on?"

"Well, for one thing, our little friend here is no spy," said Geo.

"How do you know?" asked Urson.

"Because she doesn't know he can read minds."

"How do you mean?" Urson asked.

"First of all, I was beginning to think something was wrong when I came back from talking to the priestess. You were too, and it lay in the same vein you were talking about. Why would our task be completely useless unless we accomplished all parts of her mission? Wouldn't there be some value in just returning her sister, the rightful head of Leptar, to her former position? And I'm sure her sister may well have collected some useful information that could be used against Aptor, so that would be some value even if we didn't find the jewel. It doesn't sound too sisterly a thing to me to forsake the young priestess if there is no jewel in it for her. And her tone, the way she refers to the jewel as _hers_. There's an old saying, from before the Great Fire even: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I think she has not a little of the un-G.o.ddess-like desire for power first, peace afterwards."

"But that doesn't mean this one isn't an Aptor spy," said Urson.

"Wait a minute. I'm getting there. At first I thought he was too. The idea occurred to me first when I was talking to the priestess and she first mentioned that there were spies from Aptor. The coincidence of his appearance, that he had even managed to steal the jewel in the first place, that he would present it to her the way he did; all this hinted something so strange, that spy was the first thing I thought of, and I'm sure it was the first thing she thought as well. And she especially would think this if she did not know that Snake could read minds and broadcast mentally, because ignorance of his telepathy removes the one other possible explanation of the coincidences. But, Urson, why did he leave the jewel with us before he went to see her?"

"Because he thought she was going to try and take it away from him."

"Exactly. When she told me to send him up to her, I was fairly sure that was the main reason she wanted him. But if he was a spy, and knew how to work the jewel, then why not take it with him, present himself to Argo with the jewel, showing himself as an equal force, and then come calmly back, leaving her in silence and us still on his side, especially since he would be revealing to her something of which she was nine-tenths aware of already, and would watch him no more carefully than she would were it not confirmed."

"All right," said Urson, "why not?"

"Because he was not a spy, and didn't know how to work the jewel. Yes, he had felt its power once. Perhaps he was going to pretend he had it hidden on his person. But he did not want her to get her hands on it for reasons that were strong, but not selfish.

"Here, Snake," said Geo. "You know how to work the jewel now, don't you; but you learned from Argo just now."

The boy nodded.

"Here, then, why don't you take it?" Geo lifted the jewel from his neck and held it out to him.

Snake drew back and shook his head violently.

Urson looked puzzled.

"Snake has seen into human minds, Urson. He's seen things directly which the rest of us only learn from a sort of second hand observation. He knows that the power of this little bead is more dangerous to the mind of the person who wields it than it is to the cities it may destroy."

"Well," said Urson, "as long as she thinks he's a spy, at least we'll have one of them little beads and someone who knows how to use it. I mean if we have to."

"I don't think she thinks he's a spy any more, Urson."

"Huh?"

"I give her credit for being able to reason at least as well as I can.

Once she found out he had no jewel on him, she knew that he was as innocent as you and I are. But her only thought was to get it in any way she could. When we came in, just when she was going to put Snake under the jewel's control, guilt made her leap backwards to her first and seemingly logical accusation for our benefit. Evil likes to cloak itself as good."

They stepped down into the forecastle. By now a handful of sailors had come into the room, mostly drunk and snoring on berths around the walls.

One had wrapped himself completely up in a blanket in the middle berth of the tier that Urson had chosen for the three. "Well," said Urson to Snake, "it looks like you'll have to move."

Snake scrambled to the top bunk.

"Now look, that one was mine."

Snake motioned him up.

"Huh? Two of us in one of those?" demanded Urson. "Look, if you want someone to keep warm against, go down and sleep with Geo there. It's more room and you won't get squashed against the wall. I'm a thrasher when I sleep."

Snake didn't move.

"Maybe you better do what he says," Geo said. "I have an idea that ..."

"You've got another idea now?" asked Urson, "Oh, d.a.m.n, I'm too tired to argue." He vaulted up to the top bunk. "Now move over and be very small." He stretched out, and Snake's slight body was completely hidden.

"Hey, get your elbows out of there," Geo heard Urson mutter before there was only a gentle thundering of his snore.

_Silver mist suffused the deck of the s.h.i.+p and wet lines glowed a phosph.o.r.escent silver; the sky was pale as ice; p.r.i.c.ks of stars dotted over the whole bowl. The sea, once green, seemed bleached to blowing clouds of white powder. The door of a cabin opened and white veils flung forward from the form of Argo who emerged like silver from the bone-colored door. The whole movement of the scene made it look like a picture imagination fastens in the slow ripplings of gauze under breeze.